International Islamic Uiversity in Islamabad

I was quite sad to hear of the bombs on the campus of the International Islamic University in Islamabad. It hosted a few of my talks during my visit, and I was quite pleased to meet so many of the well-informed students. Those who disagreed with me, were polite and civil and friendly. When I heard the news this morning, I thought: those crazy fanatical terrorists were born from the evil alliance of the late 1970s: the Pakistani government, the Saudi government, and the American government. They were willing to unleash fanatical religious terror to defeat communism. I am now of the view that the communist governments of South Yemen and the communist government of Afghanistan were worthy of support, despite their human rights record (especially the Najibulalh regime), given what we knew and now know of their enemies (the Bin Ladenites and their variety). But when it comes to women's rights, they were one of the best regimes in that regard: better than many Western governments for sure.